ACCRINGTON Stanley’s directors admitted they had "messed up" after they were issued with another winding up order last week, which has now been averted.

The club owed the HMS Revenue and Customs £78,000 - it was part of the £140,000 bill which had amassed last year - and thought they had until the 21 January to pay that debt off.

But the London Gazette published a winding up order a week earlier - on 14 January - saying the Reds had to appear before the High Court on February 3.

The club has now paid off the tax bill to stop any repeat of the November crisis - where the club were minutes from being wound up with a debt of £308,000 - but the news was already in the public domain.

"We messed up, it is as simple as that," said non executive chairman Ilyas Khan who held an impromtpu meeting of the Stanley shareholders, along with fellow directors Peter Marsden and Dave O'Neill and chief executive Rob Heys on Saturday.

"We thought we had another week and we didn’t and we were as shocked as anyone when the news was published in the Gazette.

"We have no excuses but the money has now been sent to the HMRC and hopefully it won’t happen again. We are all learning here and it was one of those things which should have never got this far."

The meeting, called with Saturday’s match off, also saw the shareholders there vote to increase the authorised share capital by £200,000.

It gives the three directors a right to issue more shares to the value of £200,000 in the future although Khan said it wasn’t something they want to implement immediately. The directors also reiterated their stance that manager John Coleman does not have to sell players to bring finances in.

"We don't need to to bring money in but, if say a Championship club came in for a player, we would have to give him the chance to move on if he wanted," said Khan.

"Also we won’t say we aren’t a selling club as that’s how football works but we don’t have to sell them and everything will be judged on its own merit."

The news came as Stanley turned down a six figure bid for a unnamed Reds’ player.

At the meeting it was also confirmed that the accounts at the Crown Ground are now done monthly and the club expect to call a full official shareholders meeting in early March - there hasn’t been one held at Stanley for years.

And the money put into the club by Khan and Marsden were donations not loans and they didn’t expect to get the money back.

Meanwhile, after Tuesday’s FA Cup win over Gillingham, Accrington-born millionaire Khan expressed his delight at now being a big part of the Crown Ground club.

"I take the greatest pleasure in knowing how much the Gillingham win meant for the town and the fans," he said.

"When the final whistle blew my phone and email box erupted. Its wonderful to know that the club has such relevance and can bring a smile to the face of so many in our little town."

DAVE O’Neill IS the majority shareholder at Accrington Stanley.

The Managing Director said at the impromptu shareholders meeting on Saturday, that he now has the certificates for the 51 per cent shares he bought off former chairman Eric Whalley and he has paid the original money asked to conclude the deal

"I have seen the evidence and I believe Dave is the owner of the majority shares," said non-executive chairman Ilyas Khan.

"I have done everything that has been asked, got the certificates and, as far as I am concerned, the takeover is complete," said O’Neill.

The next step is to register O’Neill as the official owner at Customs House.